South Wales Cancer Crusaders

South Wales Cancer Crusaders

Group of individuals participating in yearly challenges to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

24/07/2024

‼️ 9 days to go ‼️

‘South Wales Cancer Crusaders’ was formed back in 2019. The group has grown, and the scale of the challenges has increased ever since. Since 2019 the challenges have ranged from; The National 3 Peaks, a 100km walk, and Ten-y-Fan, with other gruelling challenges in between.

Of course, this years challenge involving us attempting to climb the Welsh 3 Peaks whilst cycling to and from each mountain.

If you’d like to donate or find out more, please follow the link in our Instagram or Facebook bio.

We start the challenge next Friday (1st August) 🏔️

23/07/2024

‼️ 10 days to go ‼️

Training and preparation is in full swing and we’re almost ready to set off! We’re hoping for 100% completion this year with the hope that there will be no storms (near hurricanes) again. 🌪️⛈️

Once again, our target is to raise £10,000 for

Thank you to everyone who’s donated so far. If you’d like to donate, please follow the link in our Instagram / Facebook bio. 🚵‍♂️

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 17/07/2024

A few different guides to show how much of a challenge this really is…

Just over two weeks to go now and training is in full swing!

Any donations are massively appreciated

https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/swcc-cycling-and-climbing-the-welsh-3-peaks?

06/07/2024

Superb effort from who organised a charity golf day up in Ullapool, Scotland and managed to raise £1317.50 for Cancer Research

A massive 13% of our target for this year raised!

Looking forward to getting you back down to Wales in 3 weeks time for our next event. Cycling and climbing the Welsh 3 Peaks!

A link to our fundraising page is in our instagram bio and page if you want to read about our challenge and if you are able to donate. Thank you 👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿.. Up the Joe

03/07/2024

🚵‍♂️⛰️🏃🏽‍♂️ Just 30 days to go…

Please visit the link in our bio to find out more or donate. Any donations are massively appreciated!

25/06/2024

🏔️ - Climb Snowdon
🚴 - Cycle 40 miles to Cadair Idris
🥾 - Climb Cadair Idris
🚴‍♂️ - Cycle 100 miles to Pen Y Fan
🚶🏼‍♂️- Climb Pen Y Fan

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 23/06/2024

🚴🚵‍♂️ A few of the boys out training on the bikes this weekend ready to take on our next challenge in just over a month’s time!
‼️One of our toughest challenges to do date
🖇️ If you’d like to donate or find out more about our challenge, please visit the link in our bio

Photos from Cancer Research UK's post 20/04/2024
17/04/2024

This years event is finally up and running 🏃‍♂️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

If you would like to have a read about our challenge this August, where we are climbing and cycling the Welsh 3 Peaks. Then please following the link on our bio, or scan this bar code which will take you directly to our Cancer Research page.

As always donations are so so appreciated, and we are currently looking for sponsorship from businesses to help support us.

Thank you all 👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 15/04/2024

**Sponsorship opportunities for businesses**

We have been lucky enough to have been supported by many very generous local businesses over the years, and it is their support that allows us to take on our challenges and raise money for Cancer Research ⛰️💰

This year we again are looking for sponsorship to enable us to complete our next challenge of cycling and climbing the Welsh 3 Peaks. If you or if you know of any businesses that might be interested in helping us, then please point them in our direction 👊

What we offer in return:
- Your company logo will be printed on our event T-shirts and worn by the boys during the challenge.
- We also try our best to publicise your company via our social media platforms to thank you for your kind support

So please get in contact, thank you all 👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

04/04/2024

We have been a bit slow getting things sorted for this year. But we are glad we can finally say we have this years challenge sorted 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🎉……………….

So on the 2nd August-4th August we are taking on the Welsh 3 Peaks ⛰️⛰️⛰️. (A challenge we previously completed in less than 16 hours) however this time we are also cycling in between each mountain.

Day 1: - 0700hrs - Travel from Newport to Snowdon - 1100hrs - Climb Snowdon - 1500hrs - Cycle approximately 40 miles to Cadair Idris Day 2: - 0700hrs - Climb Cadair Idris - 1100hrs- Cycle approximately 50 miles to Llanidloes Day 3: - 0700hrs - Cycle approximately 50 miles to Pen Y Fan - 1500hrs - Climb Pen Y Fan

In total we will be cycling approximately 140 miles with an elevation climb of 15,000ft. (not including the hike of each mountain)
Our new fundraising page is now open: https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/swcc-cycling-and-climbing-the-welsh-3-peaks

Any local businesses wishing to sponsor us please drop us a message.

Thank you all ⛰️🚲🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 08/03/2024

An absolute honour winning Cancer Research UK ‘Pioneer of the Year’ at the Flame of Hope Awards on Wednesday.

An amazing achievement for all of us at SWCC, up against 750 nominations across the whole of the UK.

Massive thankyou to everyone at and especially our amazing rep .bu55 for all of her help and support as always!

Keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks for our announcement about this year’s challenge! ⛰️ 🚴

Thankyou,
SWCC

19/02/2024
Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 17/12/2023

Sorry we have been a bit quiet on social media recently. But we have had quite a few updates to share with you.

As you know Storm Betty meant that we had to call off Ten Y Fan early, when we were about 85% through the challenge and easily on track to finish.

On the 1st October, some of our members returned to Pen Y Fan and took on the full challenge again. It again hammered down with rain the whole time which massively slowed us up. But we managed to complete the full ten laps in 19 hours 46 mins. So as a group we can now finally say Ten Y Fan is another completed challenge 🎉⛰️

Another massive update for us, along with the help of our CR representative .bu55 . We have been chosen and won the ‘Pioneer of the year’ award. Through Cancer Research’s very own Flame of Hope Awards.

This is such a massive achievement and we are all very proud to have been chosen for this award.

So a massive thank you to .bu55 and to everyone that has supported us over the years.

Time to get planning for next years event 🎉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

21/08/2023
Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 21/08/2023

⛰️Ten Y Fan V Storm Betty⚡️

What a day…As a group we have never experienced weather like that! We had to split the route in half, to try do the most exposed section when the wind was at its lowest (scroll right to see the video of the wind on the ridge at its lowest point) 💨

At 10PM we were facing 65mph winds. (Scroll right to base camp video- but the wind was much stronger up on the mountain) On our final leg the wind was actually blowing the boys from one side of the path to the other, with a big drop on the other side.

After this real time weather reports showed the wind worsening 👎

Within our group we have a Royal Marine, a former PT fitness instructor in the army, along with boys who work in Health and Safety. The decision was unanimous and it was too dangerous for us to continue.

As a group we are heartbroken to have been stopped by the weather, but we would have no doubt completed this challenge on a good day. In 13 hours, one of our front runners had done over 85% of the challenge 👊Meaning that we only had a few hours of walking left to do, which was easily achievable within 24 hours.

The boys worked so hard in these 13 hours to get so much done as we knew the wind was only getting worse. The rain was torrential throughout and we were fighting against the wind from the off. We were all completely drenched throughout and drained as it was so tough fighting these extreme conditions.

Most people wouldn’t even attempt Pen Y Fan once in the conditions we faced. We hope our attempt shows how determined and passionate we are to raise money for Cancer Research. The weather may have beaten us on this occasion but we are taking this as a victory because no doubt we all would have finished the event under normal circumstances.

We also couldn’t have done this event without our passionate supporters. We have again raised over £12,800 for Cancer Research and we are so grateful for all your donations 🤍

Again thank you to all our amazing sponsors:
➡️
➡️
➡️
➡️ .andrews_
➡️
➡️
➡️

Until next time, thank you everyone 👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 20/08/2023

At SWCC we are lucky enough to have a incredible support team behind us. This team are made up of family/friends/ partners and we cannot thank them enough for the hard work they do behind the scenes, as they literally keep us going. We are so thankful to you all ✨

This year, we were lucky enough to be joined by Niall Kelly .. Niall reached out to us and volunteered his services, took a day off work and was with us throughout the whole event. He worked tirelessly, taping up the boys knees, ankles and toes 🤮.. Massaging/cupping those who had niggles and injuries 🏥

Many of us have injuries from sports that could have prevented us getting as far as we did do. Niall played a massive role in this, without him some of us may not have got as far as we did.

So please give a follow and reach out to him if you have any injuries or niggles.

Not only is he a brilliant sports masseuse with tons of experience behind him. But he’s a even better bloke 👍 Thank you again Niall 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 17/08/2023

🚨🚨 Tomorrow is the big day, 1 day to go 🚨🚨

Fact number 1 ⬇️⬇️⬇️
‘The Last Time’

Tomorrow is the big day for the team, we have been hit with a horrific weather forecast with gale force winds and heavy rain throughout the night 👎🏼 🌧️ ⚡️
We may be forced to change our tactics in order to keep the boys safe but we will keep all our followers in the loop tomorrow 🤞

Pen-Y-Fan is the 1 mountain we all hope never to see again after this weekend 🤣🤣

A HUGE thank you to all our generous sponsors:

➡️
➡️
➡️ .andrews_
➡️
➡️
➡️
➡️

And a massive thank you to everyone who has donated so far we wouldn’t be anywhere with you lot 🤍

Keep an eye out on social media tomorrow, updates throughout the day from 🎦

Thank you 👊🏼🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 16/08/2023

🚨 🚨 2 days to go 🚨 🚨

Fact number 2 ⬇️⬇️
‘Stats’

At SWCC we like to keep things light hearted and have a joke, but our motivation unfortunately comes from sad circumstances.
In 2019 several of our group had family diagnosed with Cancer, and since then this disease has continued to affect us all.
In 2019, we formed the South Wales Cancer Crusaders with the aim of using our background in sports/ love of fitness and the outdoors to raise money for Cancer research UK.

The likelihood of getting Cancer is currently 1:2, so a 50% chance, these stats are horrifying. We will continue to raise money for to help improve these odds 💪🏼

This is the most important message we can put out there. So please help us raise as much money as we can for Cancer Research as they are doing remarkable things 🤍

Thank you everyone (we promise tomorrow post will be more cheery) 👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 15/08/2023

🚨 🚨 3 days to go 🚨 🚨

3 more days until we do Ten-y-fan 🏔️

Fact number 3 ⬇️⬇️⬇️
‘Time’
Several online sources state that the average time to ascent/descent Pen-y-fan is 3 hours. During the training, the boys are doing this in an hour and a half which is amazing. However, the boys will have to keep up this fast pace in order to complete the challenge in 24 hours 💪🏼 ⏰

The forecast for Friday isn’t looking great, fingers crossed for some sunshine 🤞
Waterproofs are at the ready 🌧️

Thank you again for everyone’s kind donations so far, it’s much appreciated 👊🏼🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 14/08/2023

4 days to go 🚨

We are having celebratory drinks at 4pm on Saturday at 🍻🥂

The Pod has always been a supportive venue after our challenges and this year is no different. A big thank you for always having us, I think the boys are looking forward to coming here more than doing the challenge 🤣

Come on down and join us at 4pm to welcome the boys 👊🏼🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 13/08/2023

5 days to go 🚨

Fact number 5 ⬇️⬇️⬇️
‘Five is a big number for us this year’

➡️There are five sets of brothers taking part in the challenge this year.
➡️This is our fifth consecutive year raising money for cancer research.
➡️This year we have hit our long term goal of raising £50,000. Our current total is £51, 619 🎉

If you would like to have a read of challenges so far and find out more about us please head over to our fundraising page, link for this is in our bio here on Instagram or head over to our page 👍

Thank you everyone 👊🏼🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 12/08/2023

6 days to go🚨

Fact number 6 ⬇️⬇️⬇️
‘Training’

To help us prepare for Ten Y Fan, we have been training in the background.
The most consecutive legs of Pen Y Fan that some of our group have completed is 6. A longggg way off our challenge this year of 10 times. Those who did it 6 times struggled with knee pain, cramp in the quads and limped for the next few days after it 😂

All of our efforts are so worth it because we are trying to raise as much money as we can for Cancer Research. Please find the link in our Instagram Bio and on our page- South Wales Cancer Crusaders if you are able to help us reach our goal. Thank you 👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

11/08/2023

7 days to go ⌛️

Fact number 7 ⬇️⬇️⬇️
‘Calories’:
As a minimum, we are expecting to burn 7000 calories by hiking up/down Pen Y Fan 10 times.
However, this figure is more than likely going to over 10,000 calories 🤯

So thankfully our support team will have plenty of cakes on hand to fuel us throughout the day 😍 🍰

Massive thank you to those who have already donated to us this year, the link is on our Instagram bio or page. Search for us at South Wales Cancer Crusaders. Thank you 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 10/08/2023

8 Days to go 🚨

Fact Number 8 ⬇️⬇️⬇️
‘This is our Everest’ 🗻
If we managed 8 Ascents of Pen Y Fan (449m) it will mean we have climbed higher than Mount Everest Base Camp to Everest Summit (3486m)

And we have signed up to do 10 👀

Our fundraising link is on our Instagram bio and page, and all money we raise is going direct to Cancer Research. Thank you 👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Photos from South Wales Cancer Crusaders's post 09/08/2023

9 days to go ⏱️

Fact number 9 ⬇️⬇️⬇️
This year we have 9 support members in our team. Our support team is made up of friends and family, these guys literally keep us going when completing these challenges. From feeding us to driving us to the locations, without their help and support we wouldn’t be able to get through it 🤍

This post is dedicated to them, with a special shout out to who is joining us this year to help the boys when it gets tough 💪🏼

Keep an eye out for our supporters who I’m sure we will see on the day, thanks to our social media man 🎦

Keep an eye out tomorrow for our next post 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Please find link to donate below 👇

08/08/2023

The countdown is officially on ⏱️

10 days to go til we take on possibly our hardest challenge yet- Ten Y Fan 🏔️

A big thank you to all our amazing sponsors this year….


andrews_




All money raised is going directly to our link to donate is in our Instagram bio and on our page.
Please help us achieve our goal for this year of raising £10,000.

Keep an eye out for tomorrows post 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

03/08/2023

Thank you again St Joseph's Hospital, South Wales very generous!

We are proud to be supporting the South Wales Cancer Crusaders again this year, as they take on the 10-Y-Fan Challenge on the 18th August. ⛰️

This year, the group's challenge involves walking up Pen-y-fan 10 times in 24 hours. They will set off on Saturday morning and finish on Sunday morning, raising awareness and vital funds for Cancer Research UK.

You can support the team by donating here: https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/swcc-ten-y-fan

Good luck team! Including our Theatre Manager, James Austin, who takes part in the challenge every year alongside his friends. We look forward to witnessing their incredible journey and cheering them on as they conquer Pen-y-fan for a great cause! 👏

18/07/2023

2023- A milestone year for everyone at SWCC🚨

This will be our 5th consecutive year raising money for Cancer Research .. And to celebrate this achievement we are taking on our hardest challenge to date - Ten Y Fan. Which involves walking up Pen Y Fan ten times within a 24hour period. So we will be walking throughout the night with no sleep.

This year will also be the year that we raise over £50,000 for Cancer Research which has always been a massive goal for us.

Our events so far have included:
2019 - National 3 Peaks (24hr)
2020 - 100km walk (24hr)
2021 - 85 Mile River Wye Canoe
2022- 128 Mile Cycle
2023 - Ten Y Fan (24hr)

This year we have some fantastic sponsors behind us including , , , , , .andrews_ , all have been very generous in their donations to us again this year

Please have a read of our link in our bio to find out more about our latest challenge and as always any donations are massively appreciated. Thank you 👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Videos (show all)

Over £13,000 raised for Cancer Research. Thank you so much to everyone that has supported us and donated to Cancer Resea...
A Gary James update, for the fans ♥️
Who's who? Who knows! But we are getting close now. Interview with the Higgins twins, a pair of brothers who have smashe...
@brianfeeney1 update! Tough challenge is nearing it's completion. A few more stops until the boys bring it home 🚴
Spinners, conquering the steepest of inclines! Body's are hurting, bikes are crumbling. The effort is huge!Link in bio ♥...
Just when things couldn't get any worse, our very own supervillain @s.parselle arrives!
SWCC's presenter @lukejoncollins 🎤🚴Day one, and that's a wrap!
The man who started it all, @g.odonovan, sharing his thoughts on the event so far. The support for the cause means the w...
This is a mammoth task, and Brian is a giant of a man!
Grateful to be able to draft such an athlete for this event! James being the inspiration for the entire group. Toned, ta...